Theater Report

Legacy of Light

Last Friday two of my friends and I went to see a theatre play called Legacy of Light that was shown in the Arena Stage 1 theatre. The ticket to ArenaStage1 was 16 dollars for an individual, and so the total amount we spent on the tickets was 48 dollars. The play Light of Legacy is a drama that talks of motherhood and what to give to the world. It is a play that describes two centuries. It depicts the aspect of women and science.

The play was being performed in the ArenaStage1 theatre that is in San Francisco city. The stage where the acting took place was divided into three main stages where the three different scenes were being acted. The first one was the blue dimly lit stage where Olivia and her husband acted on. The second stage was the brightly lit one, and the scene acted on it depicted the modern-day life in Los Angeles. The third stage was lowly lit with actors well illuminated where the philosopher (Votes) and his lover are shown throughout.

Legacy of Light is a play that is set with a background of science. It also gives a story of motherhood and shows that what people can give to the world can be both in terms of children or creativity. In this case, giving through creativity and science has been shown throughout the play. The play featured humor, poetry, parenting, ambitions, sadness, sex and so many more. The director showed great creativity as many different moods were shown in Legacy of Light. The play was fantastic. It was so interesting that everybody in the theatre was disappointed when it came to an end. It is a play that one can watch once, twice or even thrice without getting bored at all. The lighting of the stage emphasized the atmosphere. The costumes were fabulous. Each part of the costumes was decorated with ornaments made of pearls and gold. They had nice and colorful decorations of patterns and braids. Women had expensive colorful clothing on, which showed that the depicted society was rich. There was a lot to be noticed about the lighting. In some parts of the play, the bright light was used for the illumination, whereas in some parts, the blue and purple lights were used to show the sky and the universe at large. The transition between the scenes was very smooth. The lighting was used to bring to the attention of the audience that the play is moving from one scene to another.

The exposition of the play took around fifteen minutes before the actual acting took place. This was the introduction part, which helped the audience to understand the general theme of the play. The climax of the play is when Emilie, the scientist, is interpreting and criticizing the Newton law of gravity and also during the time when Olivia uses the work of sir Newton to make her great scientific discoveries. The pace throughout the play was uniform.

The most striking moment in Legacy of Light is when Olivia convinces her husband that she wants to be pregnant. The husband does not support this, and this leads to some disagreement between the two.

My interpretation of the play is that women are not only born to give birth to children, but also to contribute towards science and art. This is clearly shown in the good understanding of the Newton laws by Olivia and also the criticism she tables out on the same. She has also made some great scientific discoveries.

The audience of the play was young and middle-aged people. Their average age ranged from eighteen to thirty-five years. We were in the same age bracket group with the audience, and hence this made me comfortable in the theatre. None of their reactions ever surprised me. Their behavior throughout the play was relevant.

The play’s performance was direct. It featured both men and women. There were three male actors and three female actors. Steven Lane (Voltaire) and Heather Charles (Émilie du Châtelet) Becky Eck (Olivia) are the main actors in the play. The casting of the play was all modern. According to my judgment, the actors’ age was fit for the play.

The theme of the play was women and science. It was conveyed through the scientific discoveries made by women in the play.

The Sins of Sor Juana

I went to the Goodman theatre that is located in San José to watch a theatre play called The Sins of Sor Juana. The play is a love drama. The ticket to the theatre cost me 19 dollars.

Goodman Theatre is one of the most decorated theatres in San Jose with a very spacious stage where the performances take place. It has a capacity of twenty thousand people per single seating. The seats for the audience are upholstered in leather and can be described as the most comfortable theatre seats in the city.

The production is a spectacular one. It gives one the urge to watch it again. The storyline of the play is very interesting and full of humor. My friends and I could not control our laughter throughout the play. In addition, the actors were very beautiful, which added to the appeal of the play. The play involves a 17th-century setting, which has been slightly modernized to make it more interesting to the modern generation. The costumes used in the play are very attractive and match the theme of the play. The main actor, Sor Juana, looks really attractive to both the audience and the fellow actors in the play. The stage was very brightly illuminated, and this made the play more spectacular. The sound was used during the transition from one scene of the play to the other and created a particular mood in the play. The play reaches the climax when Juana falls in love with the Spanish handsome person who has been hired to protect her as her mercenary.

The moment when Juana and her new lover meet and start kissing is a point, which made the audience feel somewhat embarrassed, considering the fact that there were adults and young children. The audience was diverse. I was not very comfortable watching the play with young children, and this made me think that the play was supposed to be rated at least 17 years of age.

The Book Club Play

The Book Club Play was staged at HorizonTheatre. The ticket to HorizonTheatre was 13 dollars for an individual, and so the total amount we spent on the tickets was 39 dollars. The Book Club Play is a play about a group of individuals who were advocating for a better and improved book reading culture of the society. HorizonTheatre is a small theatre located in San Jose with just a small stage capable of accommodating plays with less than six characters. It can only hold an audience of 120 people.

The play encourages people to read more books and change their reading habits for the better. One of the actor’s talks of starting a club that will constitute of people with the same literature preferences. This has never changed throughout the play. Being in the official clothing, the actors seem very smartly dressed. This shows their professionalism. At some point in the play, it was brightly illuminated. Some parts of the play were accompanied by symphonic music. The conflict comes about when Anna, the founder of the book club, is faced with opposition to the rather bright idea. The climax in The Book Club Play occurs when they cannot agree on which of the books they have read is the most interesting. The exposition was short and took about five minutes. There was a 10-minute intermission in between the play. The play was filled with humorous scenes, which kept the audience laughing throughout the presentation. The play was rather straightforward and did not feature major twists.

The audience of the play was diverse. This was mainly due to the fact that it did not target any specific audience but rather all the spectators who like reading. The performance employed a direct approach, and the audience could relate it to their daily lives. The production applied modern casting methods as the setting of the play was in the present time. The age group of the actors was between the early twenties to late thirties, which was appropriate for their role as this is the group that has a large number of book enthusiasts. The theme of the play was to develop a reading culture in society.